


CHOKE - A Heathers AU

by toxic



Category: South Park
Genre: 80s AU, Abuse, Alternate Universe - Heathers Fusion, Bulimia, Bullying, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Murder, Suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 05:10:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17954189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toxic/pseuds/toxic
Summary: After switching schools, Craig Tucker finds himself forced into Eric Cartman's popular friend group to reign the school aside them. An encounter with Kenny McCormick, who seems to be outlawed by their fellow students, sparks curiosity within Craig- and a deadly chain of events.





	CHOKE - A Heathers AU

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is a Crenny fanfic based on the Heathers movie (I dont fuck with the musical to be honest). You can check out some concept art I did for this on my tumblr;  
> http://dandydelinquent.tumblr.com/post/173428548076/southparkxheathers  
> Title inspired by idkHOW's song 'Choke'.  
> Enjoy!

"Hey. Hey new kid."

_Keep walking._

"Ay! I'm talking to you, braceface. Stop fucking walking."

It was hard to ignore such an annoying voice paired with quickening, heavy footsteps. Usually Craig Tucker had always managed to blend in well at his old high school. He had a few selected friends but aside that, people used to leave him alone. That was the way he had preferred things.

"What's your damage?" As soon as he felt a persistent hand tearing at his shoulder, he turned around to face his follower at least and greeted him with a raised middle finger. Craig looked down at the fat boy in front of him, raising his hand to get rid of the brunet's grip on his shoulder.

"I didn't know a poor kid could afford such an attitude. I'm Eric Cartman."

"I really don't care." There was barely enough composure left inside of him to not flip Eric off a second time, yet he didn't feel like it was quite worth causing a ruckus on his first day.

"You didn't even listen to my offer first, Tucker. I had a great deal for you- was feeling just kind enough to give you a spot right by my side. At the top of the food chain. Because I'm just that generous of a person-"

"Ate your way to the top? Leave me alone." Craig was feeling uneasy due to the other knowing his name, but on the outside he seemed to be far from fazed. His nasal voice was as monotone as always. Upon his comment, he could see a quick crack in Eric's fake grin. Watched his fingers tense up, a much more forced smile appearing.

"Seems your pea brain is incapable of listening so I'll make it short. It's sink or swim, my friend. I'll let the entire school know that you only moved here because you're a little nancy boy and no one wanted you around anymore- or we'll keep it our little secret. You'd rather have me as your friend than not."

This time it was Craig's turn to tense up. It was true. His best friend, Clyde, had accidentally outed him and the news had spread out like a wildfire. Highschool kids could be cruel. And being gay had immediately earned him the spot of Least Liked. But Craig held up well, could throw more than just a punch or two.

Or at least he thought he had been able to handle things himself, until he had to spend two weeks hospitalised after he had been ganged up on and his little sister started to get mocked by kids her age. That's when his parents had decided it would be best to move and get a clean reputation again. For the sake of everyone. And Craig didn't want to bathe in the uncomfortable spotlight of negative attention to that extent ever again.

Whatever Eric wanted from him couldn't be worse than that. "What do you want from me?"

"Your face. Nothing more. There's a lot of components to running a school, not like you'd know. But one of them is completion. It's like a band, no one wants to see an incomplete one. It's gotta be four members. And you're lucky enough I dropped our number four."

"Five, fatass. Think Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, the Cure, AC/DC. It's mostly five members." Craig's gaze peeled away from Cartman, instead darting towards the two boys approaching them. The one speaking had red hair, was neatly dressed in a white button up with green embroidered initials on the collar. Beside him was a more muscular boy in a football jersey numbered 4.

"Of course the Jew knows his way with numbers."

The redhead raised his hand but quickly let it sink down again, cracking his knuckles with his thumb. It was obvious he was holding his tongue, tried to focus his attention on Craig instead. "Nice to meet you, new kid. My name's Kyle." He extended his hand toward the other, pushing past Cartman, who shoved him in return.

"Fucking jew."

"Cut it out already, dude." The jock started bickering with the brunet almost immediately.

In all honesty, Craig was feeling overwhelmed from everything that had went down in the past few minutes. Instead of shaking Kyle's hand, he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Craig Tucker." From the second he had stepped foot in this school, he hadn't planned on socialising anymore than neccessary. Neither Kyle's polite introduction nor Number Four's puppy eyes glancing at them every so often would change that.

Kyle didn't seem too bothered by it, instead mimicked Craig's posture. "Whatever that asshole said, don't take it too seriously. He has a severe superiority complex, we know that."

"I don't really like your friend."

"I don't really like my friend either. Actually, I wouldn't consider him close to even being my friend. And I doubt Stan is feeling indifferent about Cartman by now."

"Good for you."

* * *

 Much to Craig's disliking, Eric had meant every single word he had said to him. His attempts to avoid the three other boys were in vain and he soon found himself to be a proper member of the group. To the rest of the school it seemed like that, at least.

There was still a feeling of being disconnected from the others, despite growing to somewhat enjoy the company of Stan and Kyle. And when he closed his eyes and tried hard enough, he could pretend that Stan's whining about his girlfriend was Clyde's. But they wouldn't ever be able to replace his old friends.

Craig rested his head in his hand as they sat at lunch together and aimlessly glanced around the cafeteria. His thoughts were every where but present, not feeling like his brain was capable of processing neither Cartman bragging about his lunchtime polls nor Stan talking about Wendy.

In all honesty, he wasn't even quite sure how the polls were still a thing. It wasn't as if Cartman ever asked anything remotely useful- if all, he got his usual kicks out of provoking their fellow students with offensive questions. Only when Kyle's name was mentioned, the black haired boy snapped out of his trance again.

"What's even taking him so fucking long? I told him to get me another hot dog on the way back. Damn jew can't even take a shit right. The polls-"

Craig was quick to stand up, pushing his tray away from himself as he cut Cartman's complaining short as he declared plainly, "I'm calling dibs on checking on Kyle."

"Whatever. Make it quick, brace face." There was a mild look of betrayal in Stan's eyes and he couldn't blame him- after all, Craig was so eager to leave as it would allow him to escape his duty of helping Cartman with the polls. It was Friday, his turn to do so. Usually. Now the annoying task would be passed onto Stan.

The comment regarding his braces prompted Craig to flip the fat boy off before he left the cafteria as quickly as he had stood up. The comparably empty hallways had a comforting feeling to him and he took a deep breath. It was.. tiresome to be popular. Craig didn't enjoy the attention it got him.

He was only there to sit pretty and nothing more; Cartman hadn't lied. The brunet had been fearing a loss of popularity, and with that control, through Stan's relationship with Wendy.

 _Yeah he's got a nice face_ , he had said, _but it's fucking useless now._

It wasn't a coincidence that the group was on top of all other students; Kyle had money to burn with a successful lawyer as father, Stan hit the genetic lottery as well as being the schools star quarterback and Cartman.. he was just an asshole.

Craig had discovered quickly that the others popularity was nothing more than a reign of blackmailing and bullying. Not like it mattered much to him anymore. He had already made his deal with the devil.

His attention was naturally drawn to an open locker. It didn't just stand out from being the only one open, but rather because it was covered with written slurs. The locker had been that way ever since he came to this school yet Craig had never bothered to take a closer look.

Promptly, it was shut by its owner who was no longer hidden. "What are you staring for? If you're here because Cartman said I'd blow you behind the bleachers for a poptart, I gotta disappoint you." Kenny McCormick's voice was filled with spite, accompanied by a faux grin that showed off the gap between his front teeth. Fingers focused on rolling himself a cigarette.

The brash greeting had caused Craig to roll his green eyes. Perhaps he wouldn't have bothered interacting with the him, if Cartman hadn't forbidden him from doing so.

"Aren't you going to clean it?" And maybe he did because that locker hit a bit close to home; something that didn't occur often for him.

Once the finished cigarette was placed behind his ear, it quickly disappeared among Kenny's shaggy blond hair. "How could I? It's such an honour to have the head of the football team sign it for me. Even got one from Kyle Broflovski, believe that!" He whistled, pointing towards the two smallest writings on his locker.

'Gay' in all caps and 'poor' in neat, cursive handwriting. They had definitely picked the kindest insults among the bigger written ones like 'kill yourself' or 'faggot'. "No but really, I don't care. They'll be back in no time. Whatever- don't you have lunchtime polls to go through with your friends?"

"They're not my friends. I work with them. And if I have to go around with one more poll I might kill someone, so no, not today."

Kenny snickered at that, turning around to face Craig again as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his black coat. It looked just the right kind of busted, the kind where it passed off as being intended for a rebellious aesthetic. It was quite a contrast to how nicely Craig had to start dressing once he forcibly became apart of Cartman's group.

"He's got dirt on you, doesn't he?"

"He's got dirt on _everyone_." Not wanting to openly admit his problem, Craig avoided answering any more than necessary.

He could tell that Kenny wasn't stupid and could put one on one together. No one would sympathise with someone in his position- unless they were in the same boat. For a couple of moments they were just staring at each other and Craig was unsure if the smug look on the smaller boys face made him want to kiss or punch him.

The blond stepped closer, close enough for Craig to see the freckles dusting over the bridge of his nose. "I think I know what's the issue with you. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Cartman's always been that way."

Despite being a head taller than Kenny Craig somehow felt as if he was looking down at him regardless: it was an expression that seemed equally attracted as it seemed disgusted.

"How very. You talk too much." So he opted for breaking eye contact, expressing his disinterest in carrying the discussion on further and started to walk away to complete his talk of bringing back Kyle.

"See you around, Tucker."

Craig could've gone for a cigarette right then as well.

* * *

The stench of bile in the boys bath room immediately made Craig's thoughts about Kenny fade away again.

Upon hearing a dry, forced gagging out of one of the stalls he had to grimace. It was fucking disgusting- then again, nothing he wasn't used to by then.

Ducking down, he looked down at the floor of each stall: the one with food wrappers on the floor was the one he had been searching for.

"I think you should see a doctor about this.", the black haired boy said as he stood up straight again "Because one day you'll be caught anyways."

There was a clicking noise that implied that Kyle had unlocked the door. Craig got inside the stall, looking down at Kyle sitting on the floor next to the toilet. There were small sweat beads on his forehead with pale skin even more lifeless than usual as he refused to look at Craig, instead glared down at the gold watch on his wrist, "I said I don't want to talk about this. You're sounding like Stan."

If he had cared a bit more, he maybe would have been offended by the comparison. Craig didn't particularly care about this whilst Stan tended to be quite dramatic whenever he was the one to run into Kyle in the bathroom. _Dude, you're much better than that, I can help you! You gotta get some help, Ky!_

But despite being successful with every one else, Stan's infamous sad puppy eyes were met with immunity by his best friend.

Craig was the only one aside Stan who knew about Kyle's 'purging'. It was absurd to him, for sure. The redhead had a rather bad habit of binging on the non-kosher food served in the cafeteria only to make himself throw it up again in guilt. At the table with the others, he'd pretend not to be interested in the food only to end up shoving a weeks worth of it down his throat later on.

It was a miracle that Cаrtman wasn't aware of this despite knowing everything else that was going on at their school- and apparently even other schools.

When Craig had first met Kyle, he had never expected him to stoop as low as eating while sitting on a public bathroom floor.

"Fair enough.", he shrugged as he leant against the bathroom stall and pointed against the corner of his lips "Got something there. I didn't take you for one to call someone poor as an insult."

Wiping the vomit away with a napkin he had taken from the cafeteria, Kyle finally lensed up at Craig through the corners of his eyes. It was obvious the reference caught him offguard. No one ever talked about Kenny. When he had tried asking about him, Eric had gotten angrier than he had ever seen before. And the brunet threw a lot of tantrums.

"Craig, why are you pulling my dick? Just stay clear of him unless you want to get busted by Cartman. That's all I'm gonna say. Why can't you just not care, like you do about every thing else?"

His eyebrows furrowed in an irritated manner. It was hard to try and cover up how nervous the question had made him feel when he was significantly weakened from throwing up one too many times that day. Stan and Kyle always shared the same weird reaction when their attention was redirected to Kenny's existence.

The way they looked at each other conveyed a feeling a sense of shame.

How couldn't Craig be interested in the events that had unfolded prior to his arrival? Even more so when Eric forbid everyone else to talk or pay attention to Kenny. Something had happened- an elephant in the room to huge to ignore for even someone like Craig, who usually never could be bothered to care about others.

Yes, he used to get bullied himself. But he wasn't charity. It wasn't Craig's task to look after others that suffered the same fate.

But for Kenny, it was different. It seemed like their fellow students pretended that he didn't even _exist_ among them.

After he had kicked some of the food wrappers into different stalls Craig offered his hand to Kyle to help him stand up again. Kyle sighed as he quickly tried to fix his roughened appearance by running a hand through his well styled hair and smoothing over his green pants.

Once finished they left the bathroom stall and Craig looked at the two of them in the mirror, the redhead looking at him through their reflection. Awaiting an answer.

"Curiosity killed the cat, I guess."

 

 


End file.
